Archive for October, 2012|Monthly archive page

For the past week or two my displeasure and disappointment with what previously was my all time favorite game had grown to the point that I can barely bring myself to play anymore, except out of extreme boredom, and then I usually just go in and farm some crafting materials for the Guild Bank and then leave. In all honesty, it has me questioning whether I am just too old to play online games of the MMORPG type anymore. It seems they have evolved into something that is not geared towards folks like me.

When Guild Wars 2 began, and indeed, all during Beta, I was excited that perhaps….perhaps….the developers “got it” —that grinding and farming is not fun. And games should be fun. The drop rates for shiny stuff was perfect, the game play was challenging, but not geared towards min-maxing power gamers, and there were puzzles and things to accomplish that were not based solely on the pounding away of the wasd and F Keys.

Sadly, after just 2 months after launch, this is what it has become. After nerfs of the drop rates of even the most basic items, insertion of “diminishing returns” on everything to thwart the “gold farmers” (who will never be thwarted,—-they never have…they never will—, and if Guild Wars thinks they will be the first to do it, and by god, their user base be damned in the process, then I believe they need their heads examined.) But this is exactly the direction it has taken. Much of what they do to punish the gold farmers, instead punishes their user base. In guild wars 2, at this stage of the game, only power-gamers, exploiters, or cheaters win. Truly sad.

The launch was a complete disaster, with hacking and bannings and a kind of mindset took over at Arenanet that is almost Tyrannical in nature. The “customer support” was almost non-existent, and when you finally did get someone to assist, you were met with snide derision and sometimes out and out abuse. Now, two months in, you are just ignored.

I rarely if ever post in the forums, but after the current Holiday Event was so horrendously askew and bugged, I did finally post, and my post was immediately censored. Why? Because I used the word “Nazi” in my post. Not calling anyone a Nazi, but merely pointing out that the “Burning book backpack” that is a reward in the current event is reminiscent of Nazi Germany. How ironic that I would be censored for pointing out that an item reminds me of a time of extreme censorship.

Having 100 mobs kill me while I was attempting to genuflect to a pumpkin-headed King cost me a couple silvers for repairs, followed by a complete freeze of computer, not so much.

So Halloween has been …uh….interesting.

So far, no drops of goodies other than candy corn that makes me puke. Oh, and a semi-complete title, that will stare at me in its incompleteness for years to come….

Being a “care bear” have spend around 5 gold to take OTHER people around Tyria to help them get a backpack shaped like a book, and another that is a burning book. (Wait, is this Fahrenheit 451? Nazi Germany?)

I think I am skipping next Halloween completely. I hate to even contemplate the FUN of Wintersday. I may start my hibernation cycle now.

Moderator Notes:

Please refrain from making sensationalistic threads

The message was deleted.

If you believe you have received this infraction in error or wish to make an appeal, please send an e-mail to forums@arena.net.

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I wrote to the forums@arena.net twice to appeal the infraction, and got the usual response: They are not replying, but ignoring me, they do not have time for customer service, they are too busy counting their money in their ivory tower to be bothered with us peons down here.

My post above is not the least bit “sensationalistic”, and is mild in comparison with many on the subject of the Halloween Event and all its foibles. A quick search of the forums with the word Nazi will garner you hundreds of other posts that use this word, and NOT in its historical context, as mine was, but as a derogatory pejorative. Yet mine was deleted, and I was “infracted”.

Winter is upon us again. The seasons have wrapped around, my birthday has come and gone, and we are staring at the holidays again.

Personally, I am glad I don’t do holidays unless forced to anymore. They are much more trouble than they are worth, at least to me, and I would prefer things be quiet and relaxed, and holidays never work out that way. Mysi had her pumpkin carving party at her house last weekend, and I hear it was a great success, but I begged off going because I have had a touch of sadness fall over my mood lately, and I don’t really like to share those things with other people, much. Miss Downy Clowny. That is me.

Yesterday was my baby girl’s birthday, but she has not spoken to me with any regularity since the big liberal/conservative showdown fight we had years ago. Liberals are so tolerant of other people’s ideas, don’tchaknow, and unfortunately my daughter falls into that whole non-tolerant tolerant mindset. I finally gave up on having any relationship at all with her a year ago, and if truth be known, I wish she had never found me. The heartbreak of it all is too much for me at times. I did send her a tweet to wish her a happy birthday, so if she sees it, she at least knows I remember, but I doubt she will, and I am pretty certain she will not respond. Her mother is a conservative heretic, afterall.

A week from today is election day, and I am hoping it is a landslide. Of course considering the great lengths the Democrats will go to to cheat, including trying to postpone the election because of a hurricane, (sorry D guys, not constitutional, derp) In any case it is time to send the radical progressives packing. Too bad that they do not see that losing the election is probably the best thing that could happen to them, because if they win it will completely rip off their shiny happy mask and show the rest of the ugliness that lies beneath. 4 more years of this crap would demolish progressive thought into the trash heap of discarded thoughts where it belongs, once and for all. Losing the election will at least give them a reprieve, so they can continue to dream of unicorn farts and a perfect world where everyone does what the machine wants, without protest.

John has open heart surgery a month and some back, and is recovering nicely. I got to keep the dog for a while, and he is back into the groove of not getting away with murder like he does when he lives with John. I enjoy having him here, he is a great little furry ball of love.

Cold here today, but colder over towards the East, and although I think the Yankees are wimps when it comes to storms, (seriously the winds with this storm were no worse than a common thunderstorm in these parts) I do pray for them, especially since I know they are so inadequately prepared to deal with big winds.

The last few days I have been taking a good look at the Economy of Guild Wars and am convinced the economist in charge must be a Keynesian. I am more of a Hayek person, myself. Although I can see that some intervention by the powers that be is desperately needed, and soon— or the current horrible state of the economy with the cheaters, exploiters and gold sellers being the “haves” and the honorable true gamers being the “have nots” will become the norm and the gamers will jump ship and leave the place to the cheaters.

The cost of things within the developers control should be brought down quite a bit, and by this I mean the cost of: Asuran gate travel, armor repairs, salvage kits, gathering tools, just to name a just a few. These will nickle and dime you to death, and leave you with no other choice but to join the farmers in the tedious job of doing the same activity over and over again, or finding an exploit in the market that may eventually get your account banned. When the majority of users are looking for ways to cheat the system, you know the economy is in the tank.

Games are supposed to be fun, and it is unfortunate for one so anticipated to already be filled with tedium and grind less than 6 months out of the box. This is not saying that the game aspects are not fun, but when the rewards are so dismally small compared to the time invested, then for many, including myself, the question arises…how much more of my gaming time do I wish to put into this?